This is why your teenager doesn't know what to do
How to find out what works for you amongst the masses of information
Information overload is a hot topic.
More and more parents and students are feeling overwhelmed.
There are so many different revision strategies,
And so many different people shouting about so many different things,
That students often don’t even know how to start revising,
Let alone which strategies will benefit them the most.
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The problem
I think there are two main issues.
The information students are engaging with is generic.
The landscape of learning is very different from when parents were at school.
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Even back when I did my GCSEs,
Revision was really just about making handwritten notes and doing past papers.
And if you weren’t doing well,
It was because you weren’t doing enough work.
When I speak to parents, they typically echo this sentiment.
A lot of parents feel lost when it comes to all of the different ways students can revise.
And even if they themselves have a great knowledge of mind maps, active recall and the memory palace,
It can be difficult to know exactly how all of this works in the highly digital world that we have today.
The way teenagers revise today,
On a laptop,
Often makes parents feel uncertain about what their teenagers are actually doing,
If they are improving,
And how long they are actually spending revising – as there are so many distractions.
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Contrary to popular belief,
I don’t think the problem lies with students not knowing how to revise.
Very few teenagers haven’t heard of mind maps, flash cards and past papers.
The problem is that there is so much information,
And it is very rarely personalised to them.
Combined with the fact that most teenagers struggle with motivation and accountability.
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The Solution
Clay Shirky has written about how the problem in fact isn’t that there is too much information available,
It’s that we don’t know how to filter it.
He calls this concept ‘Filter Failure.’
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When I read about this concept in a different, non-education based, context it really struck me.
Students generally know how in theory they would revise.
But they are confused and worried that they will pick the ‘wrong’ approach and it wont work for them.
There are so many different people,
Telling them so many different things,
That quite often contradict each other,
That it becomes too scary to pick a way of working and start revising.
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What I want to do,
Is use this free newsletter and the broader platform that we have created at ILS,
To be your filter.
I am absolutely not suggesting that you should take everything I write as gospel.
But hopefully I can provide a bit of clarity,
And point you and by extension your teenagers in the direction of what matters.
Because ultimately,
I don’t really care whether your teenager does flash cards, mind maps or whatever else,
I am more concerned with applying a more personalised, strategic and intentional filter to your teenager’s revision,
So that they can get more marks in less time,
And feel better doing so.
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I hope you all have a great week ahead,
Best wishes,
Joel